“Life comes with many challenges. The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of”

Slight change of plan this evening, I did have another Bollywood post ready but quite frankly I was inspired today by the article Angelina Jolie wrote in the New York Times this morning, as she opened up about having recently undergone preventive double-mastectomy surgery.  I couldn’t help but think how brave she was and applaud her, for sharing with us one of her most intimate, and no doubt darkest moments. You could say this is what being a celebrity was about.

“I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer. It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options.” – Angelina Jolie

 ❤ ❤ ❤ 

Earlier this year I had a little scare, it turned out to be nothing, but while it was going on I couldn’t help but think the worse, immediately my uncertain thoughts turned to my little children and husband and of course how clueless I really was about breast cancer. Thankfully it was nothing, but its something that caught me off guard.

I had thought about sharing and talking about my experience, about how we should all keep a check on ourselves but then didn’t see the point, I thought people might think I was after sympathy or because it was nothing then why the big fuss, but I see now there was, afterwards I became much more aware of my own body and how I looked after it! So I had learned something, and if you think about it, it’s when we read someone else’s experience do we find ourselves able to relate to it and that often can lead to a change.

After all if just one other person was to read, and then went ahead and became more aware of how to check themselves or indeed what signs to look out for, well it would be worth it. After all just think about how many people that one person is connected to.

Cancer can affect anyone of us, it doesn’t really look around at who to pick when it rears its ugly head. And the lack of awareness in the Asian community in particular, about breast cancer is pretty shocking.

Now this isn’t meant to send you into a frenzied panic, if anything I hope you just take it as a gentle reminder, how important being body aware is. So many of our women are either to shy, reserved, or even cultured into thinking that checking yourself or getting checked is in some way wrong. It’s not, it’s potentially lifesaving.

I don’t usually get this personal on the blog but I felt almost compelled to today, I hope you don’t mind below are some more site you can check out for more information.

NHS

Cancer Research

Self Exam

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